President Donald Trump has filed a $10 billion defamation lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal, its parent company Dow Jones, and the umbrella company News Corp. (NASDAQ:NWSA) (NASDAQ:NWS), Rupert Murdoch and two of the paper's reporters over an article linking him to a birthday greeting allegedly sent to Jeffrey Epstein in 2003.
What Happened: Filed in federal court in Florida, Trump's lawsuit accuses the Journal of publishing a maliciously false report that he sent Epstein a risqué birthday letter featuring a hand-drawn image of a nude woman and the line, "Happy Birthday -- and may every day be another wonderful secret," reported Reuters.
Trump denied the claims outright and blasted the article as defamatory and politically motivated. "I look forward to getting Rupert Murdoch to testify in my lawsuit against him and his ';pile of garbage' newspaper, the WSJ," Trump wrote on Truth Social Friday morning. "That will be an interesting experience!!!"
WSJ did not immediately respond to Benzinga's request for comments.
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Why It's Important: According to the Journal, the letter was part of a leather-bound birthday book Epstein compiled, featuring messages from various high-profile individuals.
Epstein, a disgraced financier and registered sex offender, died by suicide in a New York jail in 2019. He had longstanding social ties with Trump and other elite figures, though Trump has said he cut off contact with Epstein well before his legal troubles became public.
The lawsuit comes amid renewed public interest in the Epstein case, as the U.S. government seeks to unseal grand jury transcripts related to Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.
Following the WSJ report, Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk, who has been at odds with Trump over the last couple of months, seemingly defended him using his AI chatbot Grok to debunk the claim as likely fake.
Read Next:
- Mike Johnson Breaks Ranks With Trump On The ';Very Delicate Subject' Of Epstein: ';I'm For Transparency'
Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
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